Deaf dog, bum knee and squawking birds

This is my second “Scenes from my sabbatical” and since I last wrote it has been a wild ride. Our pup Chloe came out with my wife and kids to spend some time here in Cleveland. The first night she was here she had a really rough night and we ended up in the pet emergency room (Don’t ask me how much that cost!). She was diagnosed with two ear infections, given meds and sent back to our Air bnb with us. However the next day she lost her hearing and altough there was no damage to her ears that can be seen, somthing happened. Anyone who knows me, knows that I love our pup and so this certainly was a distraction and concern and still is.

I have also been exercising more and I am not sure what I did but I started to get a painful popping on the side of my knee whenever I bent it. It has gotten somwhat better but it also has become a distraction. On top of all of that the Air bnb we rented (which we love in so many ways) had a nest of birds in the chimney that it took almost three weeks to get rid of. One time a baby bird escaped into the house! Yet another distraction as you never knew when you would hear the whole nest crying out at once.

Distractions are a part of life whether you are on sabbatical or not. The challenge is to determine how you will handle them. My first repsonse was, “Really God, I am supposed to be soaking this time in that seems to be flying by so quickly. Why would you allow this?” You can just hear the arrogance dripping from that statment can’t you?. Fortuantely God is patient with me. He reminded me ever so gently that He has given me this gift of processing these disractions now so that I can be better prepared for them as I move back into life after sabbatcial. How? Living with confiedence that God is Soverign not just saying it when it is convenient, focusing on what I can celebrate and seeking what I can learn and appreciate in the midst of the distractions.

I have about four weeks left and I am going to continue to seek His face and learn all that I can so that I can be ready to step back into my life with new energy, hopefully more maturity and deeper margin to lead and love the way He has called me to.